Why two different US SNES cart designs?

[vertigo]

One seems to promote laziness by allowing the Eject button to function as forcing the power switch off too by pushing the cartridge lock downwards but that also seems to go against Nintendo's warnings to turn the machine off before ejecting cartridges.
I'm not quite sure there seems to be a change of design related to a particular date, though I may be wrong.
Was it really just so Americans could be lazy, or some other weird reason?

[NeoClaret]

I've noticed this aswell. It could be one or some of the following reasons. I've never really given it a second thought until you mentioned it

The massive amount of cart sales forced Nintendo to lay down more tooling for the cart shell and this is it, but decided to alter it and make a second revision.

They could also have decided to better design the cart and reduce plastic and therefore production cost of the shell/outer.

They could have been assembing carts in Mexico and it would be cheaper to mould cart shells there rather than ship over from Japan. Might not be Mexico but another secondary location/ manufacturing facility. ( that is only a wild guess as I don't have any evidence to prove it )

Altough I'm pretty sure sega did assemble MegaDrive/Genisis carts in Mexico.


I guess you would have to talk to someone in the know at Nintendo to find out the real reason for the 2 different cart versions though.

[vertigo]

I wonder if there are any instances of the same game coming in either case. It may be a dated design change...

[S3M]

It is an odd design change isn't it.

One thing I have noticed looking at my US SNES games is it is a dated change as all the newer games have one designs and the older one's the other.

Speaking of made in Mexico I have a UK game (T2 The Arcade Game) which has made in Mexico on the cartridge sticker.

We could always compared cartridges to see if it was a dated change?

[NeoClaret]

Just had a quick look through my loose USA Snes carts and have split them into 2 catagories




Ones with a slot in which appear to be older games they are in no order

Thunder Spirits
Pit ( **** ) Fighter
Top Gear
Robocop 3
Buster Busts Loose ( Quality Platformer from one of the Snes best software
houses KONAMI )
Leathal Weapon 3
The Hunt For Red October
Dino City
Warpspeed
Street fighter 2
Joe & Mac Daddy
Gradius
Super Gay action American Football
Power Moves
Super Conflict ( this is Advance Wars older brother on the SNES )
Wing Commander
Actraiser
Wing Commander Again
Darius Twin
Hyperzone

Newer Style ( chunk out of the front appearance )

Vegas Stakes absolute quality game
Secret of MANA
King of the Monsters Aged horribly on the Neo and this port has fared no
better
Pink Goes to Hollywood
Saturday Night Slamasters Kick ass game
Super Street Fighter to go with PAL version and Jap Bootleg version I own
Taz Mania
ActRaiser 2
Alien 3 Probably one of the best Alien games
Wolverine Adamantium Rage
Bram Stokers Dracula
Rex Ronnin
Street Fighter 2 Turdbo
Primal Rage
Secret of Evermore




So it appears to me Nintendo changed the style of cases on the Newer games sequels make it look that way, unless anybody has any of the games from either category in a different style case/ shell listed, or anybody knows of the release dates to say a game from the top list is later than one on the bottom list.

So I guess Newer games newer style case/shell Revision 2

Older games older style case or Revision 1case/shell

Unless anybody knows any different. The only thing to find out know is when this took place i.e. date of transition and a reason for it??..





So I guess to find the transition date we would have to look at release dates of games.... but where to look : (

Then we could pin point within months probably when this occurred. I also reckon there must be at least 1 game that possibly appears in both cases, only possibly mind.

Vertigo hope that helps

S3M

I thought there was some games made in Mexico thanks for verifying that some exist.

[S3M]

S3M

I thought there was some games made in Mexico thanks for verifying that some exist.

Well just been checking my US games and I have three made in Mexico, they are Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 2 and Super Mario RPG. All three used the long strip design.

Slot design US games all (1991-1993)

TMNT IV Turtles in time
Starfox
The Magical Quest
Final Fantasy 2
Y's 3
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Super Castlevania
Legend of Zelda

Long strip design US games all (1993-1997)

Super Metroid (Players Choice Edition)
Final Fantasy 3
Chrono Trigger
Breath of Fire 2
Super Mario RPG
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Illusions of Gaia
Cybernator
TMNT Tournament Fighters
Tuff E Nuff

I confirmed the date by check the package copyright date. There you go vertigo.

[Brats]

The design change came in about half way through the console's life. I believe it was because in the US households were (despite the warnings) still forcibly trying to remove the carts with the thing on and buggering up not on the cart, but the machine itself by snapping off the plastic tab that slots into the cartridge.

The newer carts can be removed, but they have a small ridge that is supposed to switch the machine off if a cartridge is removed with the machine on. It doesn't always work mind.

[zipper]

I thought it was because someone else had patented the 'hold a cartridge in with a notch' idea and Nintendo had to redesign or start paying royalties / court dramas etc. - they chose the former.

Don't know for sure though - probably read this off a forum where people were speculating like this!

[vertigo]

I thought it was because someone else had patented the 'hold a cartridge in with a notch' idea and Nintendo had to redesign or start paying loyalties / court dramas etc. - they chose the former.

Don't know for sure though - probably read this off a forum where people were speculating like this!

They would have had to change the SFC and PAL SNES ones too then and they didn't, so I don't see that theory as being true unless it was a USA-only patent in the same way that Starwing only applied in Europe because of the C64 Starfox game, in which case that's probably a good answer
Thanks for your lists/answers though guys, it does definitely appear to be a thing that happened on a specific date.

[vertigo]

The design change came in about half way through the console's life. I believe it was because in the US households were (despite the warnings) still forcibly trying to remove the carts with the thing on and buggering up not on the cart, but the machine itself by snapping off the plastic tab that slots into the cartridge.

So my first idea was right in a laziness/stupidity vein? Can't help but chuckle at our friends over there

[danholo]

Interesting thread. Never actually payed attention to this although I was a bit curious when the new carts came out.